To view the most updated Microsoft Office Division news, please visit the following URL:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_mod_news_bites_blog/
Today, we’re celebrating the one year anniversary of Exchange 2010 and all the benefits customers are experiencing after migrating from their previous messaging systems. BGC Partners, for example, has reported reducing recovery time by 50 percent and saving more than one million dollars in IT costs with the help of Exchange 2010.
Try Exchange 2010 to see how you and your business can benefit and, for more information about Exchange and its one year anniversary, please visit the EHLO blog and UC blog.
Today, Microsoft Office Web Apps, on Windows SkyDrive and Hotmail, just became available in 15 additional countries. These additions bring the total number of countries to 26 – making the Web Apps available to more than 1/3 of all earthlings. 1. Australia2. Austria3. Belgium4. Canada5. China (new)6. Denmark (new)7. Finland (new)8. France9. Germany10. Hong Kong (new)11. Ireland12. Italy (new)13. Japan (new)14. Netherlands (new)15. New Zealand (new)16. Norway (new)17. Portugal (new)18. Russia19. South Korea (new)20. Spain (new)21. Sweden (new)22. Switzerland23. Taiwan (new)24. Turkey (new)25. United Kingdom26. United States For more information, visit the Web Apps team blog, the Web Apps site or the Microsoft Office Blog.
It has been a busy six months since the launch of Office 2010. But right now, we’re pushing aside the chocolate cake to list the reasons why we’re celebrating the half birthday of Office 2010.
First, customers are buying Office 2010 at a record pace. Office has seen double-digit growth in its first full quarter on the market, a 50 percent increase in business non-annuity sales, and a 5 percent increase in multi-year licenses in Q1. Needless to say, we’re delighted by the rate of adoption and interest from consumer and business customers. While the numbers are amazing, what pleases us even more are the many ways customers have become more efficient and productive as a result of implementing Office 2010.
Global Crossing recently said its sales teams have decreased the time it takes to create proposals for customers by 30 percent, thanks to co-authoring in Office 2010.
Companies including Pfizer and ResMed also use OneNote in their engineering departments for product development and process improvement, helping the companies speed time to market.
Kaiser Permanente now has the ability to save directly to a SharePoint site from Office, which was reason enough for the company to upgrade to Office 2010. Along the same lines, Cushman & Wakefield achieved an efficiency improvement of 66 percent through its synchronization of SharePoint Server 2010 and Excel 2010. Not bad!
Hotel giant Hilton Worldwide is also joining with world-class technology providers to maintain its position as the leader in hospitality technology. As part of this program, Hilton uses Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Microsoft Office Communications Server, Exchange 2010 and Windows 7 to experience the benefits of our integrated productivity platform. Using Microsoft’s productivity and collaboration tools, Hilton Worldwide employees will benefit from better access to information; the ability to quickly and easily locate subject matter experts; and improved collaboration and information sharing amongst geographically dispersed work teams at its 3,600+ global locations.
Office 2010 sets a new standard to help people get things done. We’d like to raise a glass to toast our customers’ success! Now back to our chocolate birthday cake….
Customers still considering Office 2010 can visit microsoft.com/office to learn how business can benefit from Office 2010.
Today, Microsoft officially launches Microsoft Lync, the next generation of communications! You can view a live stream of the NYC event at 8:00 a.m. PST to 9:15 a.m. PST.
Lync brings instant messaging, presence, video and voice capabilities together, making it easier to communicate virtually face-to-face despite location. Any conversation can include video, application and desktop-sharing, and enable people to participate in meetings without being physically present in the room. Lync capabilities will also be available in Office 365, announced earlier this month, allowing companies to use Lync on premises, in the cloud, or as a combination of the two.
Several customers and partners are already on board with Lync. Customers including: The Estee Lauder Companies Inc., Nikon, Marquette University, France Telecom, and Herrenknecht AG embracing Lync and seeing a new level of efficiency, productivity and return on their IT investment. In fact, Microsoft recently commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact report that found that based on a composite organization, Lync 2010 offers a 337 percent three year-risk-adjusted ROI, with a payback period of 12 months.Microsoft Lync 2010 and Microsoft Lync Server 2010 will be available for businesses of all sizes to purchase on December 1, 2010, in more than 150 countries and 38 languages. For a free trial, go to Lync.com.
Inspiration and the need to share documents can strike at any time and in any context – yes, even while looking at pictures of a friend’s new pug on Facebook. You may want to send your friend a spreadsheet containing data you pulled together on organic dog food prices in shops within the Bay area. Lucky you…Microsoft Office is now a part of Facebook’s new messaging system, allowing people to view Word, Excel and PowerPoint attachments with the Office Web Apps directly in Facebook. If you have Office installed on your computer, you will be able to download, edit and save attachments to your computer.
It’s our next step in providing 750 million users worldwide with access to their Office documents across different devices, networks and platforms – now, even on Facebook. Learn more on The Office Blog.
The Cloud Computing and Sustainability: The Environmental Benefits of Moving to the Cloud study says that moving business applications to the cloud can save 30 percent or more in carbon emissions per user. The benefits are even more impressive for small deployments: Energy use and emissions can be reduced by more than 90 percent with a shared cloud service. This study was commissioned by Microsoft Corp. and conducted by Accenture and WSP Environment & Energy. Visit the Microsoft Environment website to learn more.
Hot on the heels of last Week’s Professional Developer’s Conference, Microsoft continues its heavy focus on cloud computing by kicking off a new, global “Cloud Power” campaign. Based on the notion that the cloud has the power to fundamentally change the way people do business, the campaign will give organizations that are considering the cloud information about the potential benefits for their business and advice on how to get started.
Office 365 is a pivotal part of Microsoft’s enterprise cloud computing offering, and cloud productivity is one of the three key scenarios that the company will highlight throughout the campaign. You can expect to see quite a bit more about office 365 in the context of the campaign in the months ahead.
In addition, the campaign will include:• More than 150 educational events around the world• Insight from top Microsoft executives on critical issues such as security and privacy• Perspective from real customers talking about their experiences with Microsoft’s cloud technologies• New online tools – including the Cloud Opportunity Explorer – available at www.microsoft.com/cloud
There’s also an advertising element to the campaign, which kicks into full gear this evening with a 30-second TV spot on Monday Night Football during the Houston vs. Indianapolis game. For more information about the campaign or the meaning of “Cloud Power,” please visit the Microsoft News Center.
Today, Microsoft Lync, the next generation of unified communications, was released to manufacturing (RTM). This is the final engineering milestone before Lync is generally available worldwide on Wednesday, November 17, 2010 in New York City.
Lync brings instant messaging, presence, video and voice capabilities together, making it easier to communicate virtually face-to-face despite location. Any conversation can include video, application and desktop-sharing, and enable people to be fully present in meetings without being physically in the room. Lync capabilities will also be available in Office 365, announced earlier this month, allowing companies to use Lync on premises, in the cloud, or as a combination of the two. Check out Microsoft’s Unified Communications Group Team Blog for the announcement by Kirk Gregerson senior director of product management, Microsoft Lync. Also, download the Lync release candidate for a fully functional version of Lync Server 2010.
The average business user receives over 1800 emails per month, according to analyst firm Basex. Today, Basex selected Office 2010 as the recipient of a Basex Excellence Award, also known as a Basey, recognizing Office as an industry-leading product in the areas of knowledge-sharing and collaboration. This year’s Basey awards focus on productivity and information overload and are presented as part of an online event in observance of Information Overload Awareness Day.
How does Office 2010 help people manage information overload? Check out some of the new features Outlook 2010 offers:
The World is Changing - Is it Overwhelming Your Business?
Office 2010 now ranks as the fastest selling consumer version of Office in history, with more than 6 million copies sold to date - more than 30 copies of Office 2010 being sold every minute. We believe Office has been so popular in part because it helps people stay organized and productive. Read more about how Office 2010 offers solutions for information overload on the Office Matters blog, and more about the new features that help manage your Outlook 2010 inbox here.
“We selected Microsoft Office 2010 for this year’s Basey Award due to innovations in the suite that enhance the ability of knowledge workers to collaborate around documents, as well as for user interface improvements that streamline document processes for knowledge workers and standardize interfaces across applications.” – Jonathan Spira, CEO and chief analyst, Basex